The Strength Of Three
by CharmedMoon84
Summary: Following the deaths of their parents, Charlotte, Carmen and Carla spend their entire lives in a orphanage. But when they decide to uncover what really happened to their birth parents, they get more then they bargained for, including a shared power they never knew they had, which would enable them to destroy all villains for good.
1. Prologue

Huddled against the wall of the building she and her two siblings and their husbands stood in, Blossom's gaze went to her six month old daughter, whose gaze lingered on her before she glanced in the direction of Charlotte's father, who was busy holding off the group of five villains who were set on getting to her and Charlotte.

"Get Charlotte out of here now, honey!" her husband shouted over his shoulder at her and she obliged.

She was followed by both her younger siblings who clutched their own daughters to them as they all made their way towards the building's exit. Just as they reached the exit, the three women paused and glanced back at their husbands, only to see their husbands each receive a deep slash across their stomach areas, which made the three men sink to their knees before another slash to the back of their necks made their heads part with their bodies.

The three women shifted their gazes away from the sight of their now headless husbands and slipped out of the building before they drew the hoods on their cloaks up, concealing their features. But their departure hadn't gone unnoticed.

"Follow them and find out where they're heading with their little brats, Prin," MJ said.

The curly red haired woman strode towards the building's exit and headed in the same direction as the three women. The bright moonlight shone down onto three hooded women who got the feeling that they were being followed, but they continued heading down the empty sidewalks, currently carrying their sleeping daughters in their arms. One of the three hooded women lowered her head in order to look at the slumbering baby currently in her arms.

"Are you two sure we should be doing this?" she questioned the other two hooded figures.

"Of course we should," the hooded woman in the center replied.

"That's enough. We're doing the right thing for our daughters. With their fathers dead, they're no longer safe. The villains who killed their fathers won't stop looking for them. If we each claim that our daughters died somehow, the villains will no longer have a reason to come after them," Blossom added.

Silence fell between the three hooded women as they continued heading down the moonlit sidewalk. Finally, the three hooded women came in sight of the orphanage and made their way through the gates. They approached the steps and made their way up to the two front doors that led into the orphanage. Reaching for the doorbell that was off to the left of the two doors, Blossom pressed it and they waited for the headmistress of the orphanage to come to the two front doors.

Presently, one of the two doors was opened just wide enough to allow the three women to slip inside. Once inside, the three women pushed back the hoods that concealed their faces and they met the headmistress' gaze. The headmistress' gaze lingered on the three women before it shifted to the slumbering infants currently nestled in their mothers' arms. She suddenly noticed that her three friends' husbands were nowhere to be seen.

"Where are your husbands?" she asked.

"They each sacrificed their lives so we and our daughters could escape. But I think we were followed here, so we need another safe place to hide our daughters."

"There's another orphanage close by that the villains don't know about. You can take your daughters there. Go out the back entrance, which is just past the kitchen."

The three women did so, but not before hugging the headmistress of the orphanage tightly, feeling remorse that they and their daughters would survive, but their longtime friend since childhood wouldn't survive the attack on the orphanage.

They ran out of the orphanage's back door and were halfway up the block when they heard the sound of a massive explosion from behind them and each of the women felt a wave of sorrow for the death of their childhood friend.

Line break

Standing across the street from the now blazing orphanage, Prin saw no sign of her childhood enemies or their daughters. Pleased that the daughters of her three childhood enemies had been killed in the explosion, along with their mothers, she walked away from the destroyed orphanage and went back to rejoin the other villains, who still occupied the building that Charlotte's. Carmen's and Carla's fathers had been killed in. She walked into the building, which made every villain glance over at her.

"Well?" MJ asked.

"Charlotte, Carmen and Carla are dead, along with their mothers," Prin replied, which made all the villains cheer.

"I believe you're not being very truthful with the villains, my dear Prin," a voice spoke from out of the empty air, followed by its owner emerging from a cloud of reddish smoke.

"I was right across the street from the orphanage they went into and I saw no sign of anyone leaving the orphanage through the front doors after I blew it up," she said.

"They wanted you to believe that they and their daughters died in the explosion you caused, Prin, but our three female enemies and their daughters are very much alive."

Line break

Unaware that their ploy to make their enemies think that they and their daughters had been killed in the explosion that had destroyed the orphanage that had been run by their childhood friend was unsuccessful, the three women made their way up the stairs to the front door of the nearby orphanage their now dead friend had told them about before they gently placed their still sleeping daughters just in front of the main door before tucking a slim envelope meant for each of their daughters into the folds of the blankets. Getting to her feet, the redhead rang the doorbell before she and her middle sibling made their way down the steps.

At the bottom of the steps, they both paused and turned back towards their blonde sibling, who was still kneeling beside her sleeping daughter.

"What are you doing, sis? We've got to get out of here," the dark haired woman said.

"It's not fair that we have to leave our children to be raised in an orphanage."

Blossom joined her fair haired sibling and helped her to her feet.

"I know but it's the only way to make sure our daughters will be safe," she told her blonde sibling.

Semi reassured by her oldest sibling, the blonde joined the dark haired woman while the redhead rang the doorbell and then joined her two younger siblings before they all hurried away from the orphanage and their daughters. Inside the orphanage, the current headmistress had heard the doorbell ring, so she opened the front door, only to notice the three sleeping infants that were currently swaddled in blankets that matched their eyes. She lifted the infant in the center up into her arms before she called for two other women to bring the other two infants inside.

Hearing her call for them, Diana and Carly emerged from the kitchen area and they noticed the two other infants before they carefully lifted the remaining babies into their arms before Carly shut the front door of the orphanage. Just then, the headmistress noticed the slim envelope that was tucked into the blanket that contained the infant she held in her arms and she plucked it from the folds of the blanket.

"Charlotte," she read aloud and her gaze went to the red haired infant she had in her arms.

"This envelope says Carmen," Diana added.

"And this must be Carla I'm holding," Carly put in.

"Why were these babies just left here?" the headmistress questioned.

"No idea, headmistress," Diana said.

Line break

The three women were headed back towards the building where their husbands had willingly sacrificed themselves for the sake of their wives and daughters, when they found themselves surrounded by all the villains they'd faced on several occasions over the years.

"You thought you could trick me into believing that your daughters hadn't survived the explosion that destroyed the orphanage your longtime friend had run," Prin said.

"Where are your precious daughters?" MJ demanded.

"What makes you think that we'll tell any of you where our daughters are," the dark haired woman snapped.

"You'll tell us where you placed your daughters one way or another," another villain added.

"Never," the blonde haired woman hissed.

"Perhaps we'll just have to torture the location of your three daughters out of you," Sedus put in.

"We'd rather die then reveal the location of where our daughters are," Blossom replied.

"Have it your way, my dear," the red skinned villain said before he fired off a huge beam of energy at the three women, which completely engulfed them.

After a few seconds, he stopped firing the beam of energy and the crowd of villains noticed the three smoking cloaks that the three women had been wearing.

"Nice going. Now we'll never find out the location of where they hid their daughters," MJ said sourly.

"Patience, my fellow villains. We'll find their daughters eventually," the red skinned villain replied.

"Preferably before they learn of the power that will enable them to destroy all of us villains once and for all," Sedus put in.


	2. Chapter 1

The sound of a baby's loud cries echoed through the halls of the orphanage and the headmistress hurried towards the portion of the orphanage that housed the infants. Entering one of the rooms, she made her way over to the crib where the loud cries were coming from. She bent over the crib and carefully lifted the wailing Carmen out of the crib.

"Are you letting me know that you're hungry, little one?" she softly questioned the wailing infant while making her way out of the room.

Carmen's wails continued to reverberate throughout the orphanage until the headmistress had prepared a bottle and stuck the bottle's tip into the infant's mouth. The moment the bottle's tip had entered her mouth, Carmen's lips closed around it and she began suckling hungrily.

"You were hungry after all, weren't you, Carmen?" the headmistress asked the infant in her arms.

A few moments later, Carmen had consumed half of the bottle and the headmistress set it down on the counter, placed the infant against her shoulder and she began to gently and firmly pat Carmen on the back in an effort to get her to burp. Finally, her attempt was rewarded by a soft burp that came from the infant in her arms.

"Good girl, Carmen," the headmistress said as she walked back to the section of the orphanage where both of Carmen's cousins were currently still sleeping and she gently placed Carmen back into her crib. She lingered at Carmen's crib for a few moments, just looking down at the infant.

"Someday, you'll be old enough to understand why your birth parents sacrificed their lives to ensure your survival, little one," the headmistress murmured before she turned away from Carmen's crib and exited the room.


	3. Chapter 2

Fifteen year old Charlotte stirred and opened her eyes at the mild shaking she was receiving because of Carla. Seeing that Charlotte was awake, Carla backed up a little and sat down on the bed next to Charlotte.

"You had the dream again, didn't you, Charlotte?" she questioned.

"Yeah. I just wish I knew what it meant," Charlotte admitted.

"Do you think it was about our birth parents?"

Carmen joined Charlotte and Carla.

"Not this again, Carla," she grumbled.

Carla shot Carmen a mild glare.

"Unlike you, Carmen, I want to find out about our birth parents and why they never came back to claim us," she said.

"Simple. They no longer wanted us, Carla," Carmen replied as she left the room and headed downstairs.

Once Carmen had left, Carla turned back to Charlotte.

"Tell me about your dream again, Charlotte," she urged.

Charlotte sighed but gave into Carla's request.

"I'm gazing up into a woman's pink eyes before she shifts her gaze away from me and towards something that I can't see because I'm held securely in her arms and my face is turned away from whatever she's looking at. The next thing I know, I'm being held in the orphanage headmistress' arms and she says my name's Charlotte. That's all I remember, Carla."

 **Line break**

In the headmistress' office, she was seated at her desk and her gaze lingered on the middle aged woman who was seated across from her.

"I understand your interest in wanting to adopt three of the girls who reside here, but I assure you that they've lived here since they were babies and it's been the only home they've known. They'd be upset if they had to leave here."

"And their birth parents never bothered to claim them?"

"When two of my staff and I found them as babies, they were bundled in three blankets that matched their eyes, but there was no sign of their birth parents. The only thing they'd been left with other then the blankets was a single envelope with their name on it."

Carmen was about to enter the headmistress' office when the conversation that was taking place inside the office made her pause just before shed came into view. The high pitched and somewhat nasally voice that belonged to whoever the headmistress was talking to made a long forgotten memory come flooding back to Carmen.

She quietly turned around and headed away from the headmistress' office before she joined Charlotte and Carla, who had just come downstairs. They both noticed the anxious look on her face.

"What is it, Carmen?" Carla asked.

Carmen was about to answer, when the headmistress spoke from behind her.

"There they are," she said to the middle aged woman with curly red hair.

Charlotte, Carmen and Carla each turned towards the orphanage headmistress and noticed the woman who stood next to her.

"They'll be perfect candidates for adoption," the curly red haired woman said cheerfully, but Charlotte noticed the subtle flash of evilness that had crossed her facial features and her stomach clenched slightly as she sensed the not so good intentions of the middle aged woman.

Carla had also backed up slightly from the middle aged and curly red haired woman, fear creeping into her light blue eyes. The three girls made their way back upstairs, feeling the middle aged woman's gaze on them as they headed upstairs.


	4. Chapter 3

Seated on the steps that led up to the orphanage's front door, Charlotte was busy sketching, when she got the feeling that she was being watched. Glancing over at the sidewalk that was across the street, she noticed the hooded figure that was just staring at her. She tried to see the hooded figure's facial features, but the shadows concealed them from her view.

Clambering to her feet, Charlotte made her way down the steps, only to have the hooded figure scurry off the moment she reached the bottom step, sketch book clutched against her chest. Charlotte stood on the sidewalk in front of the orphanage for a few minutes, wondering who the hooded person was before making her way back up the steps and entering the orphanage.

From the opening of a nearby alley, the hooded figure watched as Charlotte entered the orphanage. Once Charlotte had disappeared inside the orphanage, the figure pushed back the hood that obscured its features, revealing a middle aged woman with dull red hair and vibrant pink eyes. She was joined by two more hooded figures, who had been standing further back in the shadows of the alley.

"What were you thinking, Blossom?" the hooded figure who stood a few feet away from the redhead demanded.

"I just wanted to see my daughter," she replied.

"We're supposed to be lying low, not attempting to connect with our daughters. The villains think we're dead and I want them to keep thinking that. Maybe one day, we can reconnect with our daughters, but for now, we need to keep up the façade that we're dead," the second hooded figure added.

"We've missed so much of their babyhood and childhood by pretending we're dead," the red headed woman said.

"I know, but it was needed."

Blossom drew her hood back up so her features were again concealed and the three figures exited the alley.


	5. Chapter 4

Several days after a more detailed meeting with her teen daughter, a hooded Blossom made her way down the sidewalk, unaware that she was being watched by another hooded figure that was concealed by the shadows of an alley that was across the street from her. Still concealed by the shadowed alley, the currently hooded figure reached up and drew back its hood, revealing a middle aged man with silver streaked dull red hair and deep ruby eyes.

He watched as the hooded woman stopped and looked around, as if she sensed him, only to feel himself smiling slightly as she uttered the name he hadn't gone by in the last fifteen years. She finally spotted the alley that he currently stood in and transported herself from where she stood, only to reappear directly in front of him. They just stared at each other for a few seconds before she reached up and slapped him.

"What was that for?" he demanded while covering the red handprint on his cheek with one hand.

"I was there when you were beheaded, Brick!" she snapped.

"Like you, I did what I had to in order to protect our daughter. You and your siblings aren't the only ones who can create a copy of yourselves, you know?"

Realization dawned on her.

"Those were clones who got beheaded, weren't they?"

He nodded.

"Why did you make me believe that you were dead for the last fifteen years?" she demanded.

"Believe me, it wasn't easy, honey. I wanted so badly to assure you I wasn't dead."

"Why didn't you?"

"I didn't contact you in order to ensure Charlotte's safety," he said.

"And Charlotte's uncles? Are they alive as well?" she questioned.

He closed his eyes at the mention of Charlotte's uncles, a reaction his wife took as his answer to her question, because she visibly paled.

"Unlike me, they were discovered more easily by your various enemies and were reverted to their base components before those were destroyed in a vat of acid. I could have brought them back, but the second and third components I needed have been a little hard to come by over the years."

"So, Carmen and Carla will never get the chance to meet their fathers."

"No."

"But our daughter will, because you're alive."

"No, absolutely not. I won't risk our daughter's survival by attempting to connect with her."

"I've seen our daughter. She's beautiful," she said before being grabbed by her husband.

She winced as his fingers bot painfully into her upper arms.

"Don't you realize what you've done by attempting to connect with our daughter after fifteen years?!" he demanded.

"You're hurting me."

He ignored her protest.

"Charlotte and her cousins have the shared ability to destroy all of your enemies for good, an ability that won't be activated if she or one of our nieces gets killed!" he snapped.

She paled a second time at her husband's words.

"My siblings refused to reveal where our daughter and nieces were, so they were destroyed for good as a result."

"You managed to make me believe that you were dead for the last fifteen years, so isn't it possible that they've done the same thing?"

He shook his head.

"If my siblings were alive, I would've sensed it, honey."

"You wouldn't have been able to sense that your siblings were still alive if they've resided in a different city for the last fifteen years."

"My siblings died fifteen years ago and they can't be brought back," he added with finality.


End file.
